AHS Cult Episode 7 - Valerie Solanas Died For Your Sins: Scumbag

I can say with 100% honesty that I don't know what I watched in this hour or American Horror Story: Cult. We're at that point in the season where Ryan Murphy likes to do a cutaway episode that features a "real" person. This season's cutaway comes in the 7th episode and is very is Lena Dunham heavy (meh). It's all a little off the wall, even for AHS, so I will sum up her portion as best I can. Episode 7 of Cult is my least favorite of the season so far, but hey - Frances Conroy is back, so that alone is worth the hour of my time. Here's what went down in "Valerie Solanas Died For Your Sins: Scumbag."

You Know You're Still Number One

Kai's assassination attempt certainly got him notoriety outside of Beverly Hope's nightly news report. The story Harrison sells the press paints Meadow as a disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporter (oh how I wish he had seen that vote for Oprah) who vowed revenge against Trump fans, specifically Kai Anderson. He says she wrote it all down in her diary. Isn't that convenient.... What Harrison doesn't address, nor does anyone else, is how Meadow went from missing person whose blood was all over the house to someone strolling up to a rally with a gun unnoticed. This one wasn't tied up very well, Mr. Murphy. 

As a huge surprise to no one, Kai wins the election and even gets a re-tweet from Eric Trump. Our boy is really moving up in the world. Beverly is ecstatic and ready for the next phase in world domination...problem is, Councilman Kai is already acting differently. He says he promised the people law and order and he plans it give it to them. Strange though. Kai also has a house full of young, aggressive, white male followers doing his bidding and suddenly it's time for the women of the clown posse to just "sit back and take a break." So much for equal power, Bev. Well, hell hath no fury like a crazy reporter scorned, so Beverly pays a visit to a mysterious person she had found lurking in the news station parking lot a day earlier. Welcome back, Frances Conroy! The AHS veteran plays Bebe Babbitt this season, a woman who has experience with cults...and with men trying to slow the progression of female power.

Beverly gathers Winter and Ivy at The Butchery (which never seems to be open) to discuss the sausagefest at the Anderson house. Beverly has brought Bebe along to tell her story. Seems the love of Bebe's life was a troubled young lady named Valerie...

We're Not The Fortunate Ones

We go back to 1968 where Lena Dunham joins us as Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist whose claim to fame is mostly her attempt to kill Andy Warhol. AHS introduces her to us as a desperate woman getting pounded doggy-style in the back seat of a car for less than $10. Times are tough. She uses this money to buy bullets meant for Andy Warhol because she believes he stole one of her scripts on purpose to hold her back from success. Andy Warhol, by the way, is played by Evan Peters and it's kind of refreshing to watch him in this role after seeing all of Kai's bloodshed in recent weeks. At one point Andy says, "Valerie...you know women can't be serious artists," and that seals the deal. Valerie returns to the studio and fires 3 shots at Andy, hitting him once in the chest. Bebe calls this the first shot of a revolution. The judge called it grounds for 3 years in prison under psychiatric evaluation. 

While incarcerated Valerie is still able to communicate with Bebe and the loyal supporters of her work, SCUM Manifesto, which I admit I had never heard of until tonight. For Cult purposes, SCUM stands for "Society for Cutting Up Men," and Valerie had already assembled a group of followers to murder all males who are not part of the men's auxiliary of SCUM. For instance, Drew and Bruce are two gay men who support Valerie, so they are members of SCUM as gender traitors. Now here's where we really go off the deep end: this group doesn't just kill men. This group kills men AND the women who spread their legs for a man to "gain value." I guess we'll shrug off the cash Valerie got earlier for spreading her legs. Anyway, once the first shot of the revolution was fired, we see the group murdering young couples in the midst of passion...the same way the Zodiac Killer murdered young couples in the midst of passion during that exact same time frame. What the actual fuck are we talking about now? Either Bebe is lying her ass off or the Zodiac Killer dining in AHS: Hotel is Coach Beiste from Glee. Shout out to Dot-Marie Jones for her 90 seconds on screen tonight. I've missed her. 

When Valerie is finally freed she resumes promotion of her SCUM work. She is particularly annoyed that a man had been taking credit for the killings, sending details in to the local paper as the "Zodiac Killer" and distracting people from the reason SCUM murdered these folks to begin with. Turns out Bruce is the guilty party so Valerie and the other SCUM women hack him to pieces. Valerie tries like hell to get the SCUM name out there and make people forget the term "Zodiac Killer," but it's too late. At this point she has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic as well, and her followers are getting concerned. They dwindle. They disappear...including Bebe. Valerie died alone in a hotel room in 1988 and we are seriously 46 minutes into the episode as this story finally wraps up. Bebe tells The Butchery women they must regain their power before it's too late, and for whatever reason, Valerie Solanas' story lights a fire under their asses to take action. 

They Wanna Have Fun

Winter finds Kai in their parents' room holding mom's decaying hand and I don't understand how neither of them are vomiting. The stench has to be unbearable, right? Kai wonders if they would be proud of what he's accomplished because there's just so much pressure on him now. "Am I worthy of the responsibility that's been hoisted above my shoulders?" Winter holds his other hand and tells him she loves him. She reminds Kai that he can count on her and he thanks her...but then whips out a copy of SCUM Manifesto that he'd found in her room. He tells Winter that he read it and found it fascinating and inspiring. Kai realizes he needs a philosophy "for the history books," preferably with a catchy title. His first idea is "FIT," meaning "Fear Is Truth." His second idea, that he claims came from Harrison, is "MLWB," meaning "Men Lead, Women Bleed." You can imagine how well that goes over with Winter. 

Harrison walks through The Butchery (again, not open) with Ivy and they discuss having a surprise victory party for Kai. Harrison is even thinking of building Kai an iron throne from Game of Thrones out of swords he acquired from The Golden Compass, which is honestly really badass, but Ivy is quick to question him about viewing Kai as a king. Harrison responds "what do you know about anything?" then heads into the main dining room. Winter, Beverly, and Bebe are there and he realizes the surprise party is for him. The ladies tie Harrison down to a table in the freezer and question him about Meadow. He swears he had no idea what she would do but says it's the most meaningful thing she ever did in her life. He also swears he didn't come up with "MLWB" but it's too late. These bitches are on the warpath and Ivy takes an electric saw to Harrison's neck and his blood splatters everywhere. Gordon Ramsay would lose his shit if The Butchery was ever featured on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares. As it stands now, I can't imagine how this place could ever pass a health inspection.  

Beverly Hope is of course live at the scene where Harrison's body is discovered cut into many pieces and covered in pond scum. She suspects this murder was in retaliation to Meadow's mass shooting and Beverly looks dead into the camera and says "Clearly the promise of law and order in Brookfield Heights is not being kept." Kai watches this news report and his initial reaction makes me think: this bitch is toast. However, he looks to his right and asks "They're at their best when they're angry, don't you think?" The camera pans to Bebe, sitting with a smile on her face. "Aren't we all?" 

The episode ends there and it's going to take me a little while to process this hour. With Ally still being held in police custody, we were again granted a break from her emotional breakdowns this week...but I think Valerie's continuous rants and raves were just as annoying, if not worse. I never thought I'd say this, but I missed Sarah Paulson tonight. At the moment Ally has no idea that her wife has gone from a shy follower to a full on cold-blooded killer. She probably also has no idea who the hell is watching Oz these days. I would say the kid has a very well-paid babysitter, but The Butchery is NEVER open and should really never be cleared to serve food again. 

Thinking back on the bloodshed of episode 7, where did Kai find Bebe and what is her real backstory? Did she really know Valerie Solanas or was she making all of that shit up just to get his clown posse women all riled up? Is Kai really looking to be a leader who restores order or is he actually looking to set the world on fire? Sacrificing Meadow did not surprise me given she had begun to go rogue, but Harrison has shown unwavering loyalty to Kai since day 1, so Kai's sacrifice there really surprised me. Is Beverly going to build her own group of followers now? Will she find herself alone in the end the way Valerie did in the story? What will Ally's next move be? And most importantly...what will happen to the Wilton's collection of cool memorabilia from various Nicole Kidman movies? Detective Jack better find a good home for that shit (pick me!).